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SPEECH OF G-EN. piX, 

At the opening of the proceedings of the National Union 
Convention at Philadelphia, August 14, 1866, 

Gentlemen of the Convention, and FelloTs^-citizens of tlie 
whole Union, (applause :) I return you mj sincere thanks 
for the honor you have done me in choosing me to preside 
temporarily over your deliberations. I regard it as a dis- 
tinction of no ordinary character, not only on account of 
the high personal and political standing of the gentlemen 
who compose this Convention, but because it is a conven- 
tion of the people of all the States of this Union (cheers), 
and because we cannot doubt that, if its proceedings are 
conducted with harmony and good judgment, it will lead 
to the most important results. It may be truly said that 
no body of men has met on this continent under circum- 
stances so momentous and so delicate since the year 1787 — 
the year when our ancestors assembled in this city to frame 
a better government for the States which were parties 
to the old Confederation — a government which has 
been confirmed and made more enduring, as we trust, 
by tlie fearful trials and perils which it has encountered 
and overcome. The Constitution which they came here to 
plan and to construct we are here to vindicate and to re- 
store. [Cheers.] We are here to assert the supremacy 
of representative government over all who are within the 
confines of the Union ; a government which cannot, with- 
out a violation of its fundamental principles, be ex- 
tended over any but those who are represented in it 
(loud applause), over those who, by virtue of that representa- 
tion, are entitled to a voice in the administration of the pub- 
lic affairs. [Renewed applause.] It was such a govern- 



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ment oiif fathers framed and put in operation. It is the 
government which we are bound by every consideration 
of fidelit}'', justice and good faith to defend and to main- 
tain. [Cheers]. 

Gentlemen, we are not living under such a government. 
[Applause and cries of '' That is true,"] Thirty-six States 
have for months been governed by twenty-five — eleven 
States have been wholly without representation in the 
legislative body of the nation ; the numerical proportion of 
the represented States to the unrepresented has just been 
changed by the admission of the delegation from Tennessee 
— a unit taken from the smaller and added to the larger 
number. Ten States are still denied the representation in 
Congress to which they are entitled under the Constitution. 
It is this wrong which we have come here to protest against 
and as far as in us lies, to redress. (Great applause.) 

When the President of the United States declared that 
armed resistance to the authority of the Union was over, 
all the States had a right to be represented in the National 
Legislature. [Loud cheering.] They had the right under 
the Constitution. They had the right under resolutions 
passed by both Houses of Congress in 1861. Those resolu- 
tions were not concurrent, but they were substantially 
identical. Moreover, the States were entitled to be so 
represented on other grounds of fairness and good faith. 
The President, not in pursuance of any constitutional 
power, had called on the confederated States to accept 
certain conditions for their admission to the exercise of their 
legitimate functions as members of tlie Union, — the ratifi- 
cation of the amendment to the Constitution, abolishing 
slavery, and the repudiation of the debts contracted to 
overthrow the Government. These conditions were met 
and accepted. The exaction of new conditions is unjust, 
a violation of the faith of the government, subversive of 
the principles of our political system, and dangerous to 
the public prosperity and peace. [Applause.] 

Each Ilouse of Congress may, as the judge of the qualifi- 
cations of its own members, reject individuals for just cause ; 
but the two bodies, acting conjointly, cannot exclude entire 



delegations without an unwarrantable assumption of power. 
[Applause.] Congress has not only done this ; it has gone 
farther. It has incorporated new conditions into amend- 
ments to the Constitution, and submitted them for the rati- 
fication of the States. There is no probability that these 
amendments will be ratified by three-fourths of the States. 
To insist on the conditions they contain is to prolong in- 
definitely the exclusion of more than one-fourth of the States 
from representation in Congress. [Applause.] Is this 
the Government our fathers fought to establish ? [Cries of 
*' No ! 'No ! "] Is this the Union we have been fighting to 
preserve? ["No! N"o!"] 

The President has done all in his power to correct this 
wrong (applause), and to restore the legislative body to its 
full proportions, by giving to all the members of the Union 
their proper share in the public councils. [Cheers.] Legisla- 
tion without representation is an anomaly under our politi- 
cal system. Under any other form of government it would 
be but another name for usurpation and misrule. And the 
President is entitled to the thanks of the country for his 
firmness in opposing a policy so illiberal, so demoralizing, 
and so directly at war with every principle of our political 
organization. 

I have referred to the condition of the legislative body 
under the aspects of right on the one hand and duty on the 
other, — the right of the States to be represented and the 
duty of Congress to receive their representatives. On the 
score of policy, nothing can be more unwise than to pro- 
long the present anomalous relation of the States to each other. 
It is calculated to embitter on both sides animosities and re- 
sentments, which it is our duty, by all just measures, to 
soothe and heal. It disturbs the action of the government ; 
it deranges the application of capital and labor ; it impedes 
the development of our resources ; it impairs our credit and 
our good name at home and abroad ; and it retards the 
march of the country to prosperity and power. 

Gentlemen, I trust that in our deliberations here we shall 
confine ourselves to one main purpose — that of redressing 
the wrong to which I have referred. There is much in the 



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administration of the government wliicli needs amendment 
— some things to be done and others to be undone. There 
are commercial and financial reforms which are indispen- 
sable to the public welfare. But we shall not have the 
power to carry them out until we change the political com- 
plexion of Congress. [Enthusiastic and long continued 
applause.] This should be our first, our immediate aim. 
It is in the Congressional districts that the vital contest is 
to take place. The control of one branch of Congress will 
enable us to prevent partial, unjust, and pernicious legisla- 
tion. The control of both houses, with the power to intro- 
duce and carry out salutary reforms, to " bring the gov- 
ernment back," in the language of Jefferson, " to the repub- 
lican tack," will come later. [Cheers.] But, with wise, 
harmonious and judicious action on our part, and on the 
part of those we represent, this need not be long delayed. 
[Applause.] I believe that public opinion is right, and 
that it is only necessary to present to the people clearly the 
issues between us and the ultraism which controls the action 
of Congress. 

And, gentlemen, is not the object for which we are contend- 
ing a consummation worthy of our highest and most devoted 
effbrts^to bring back the republic, purified and strength- 
ened by the fiery ordeal through which it has passed to its 
ancient prosperity and power (applause) — to present to the 
world an example worthy of imitation, not a mere Utopian 
vision of good government, but the grand old reality of tlie 
better times (applause) with which the memory of our 
fathers, the recollections of the past, and all our hopes of 
the future, are inseparably entwined (cheers)— one country, 
one flag, one Union of equal States. [Long-continued ap- 
plause.] 



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